Scacchi returns after two decades

Scacchi returns after two decades - The West Australian

Old friendship: Kate Cherry and Greta Scacchi. Picture: Iain Gillespie/The West Australian

Film star Greta Scacchi is back to work in her old home town for the first time in more than 20 years, thanks to an old friendship with director Kate Cherry.

The Emmy Award- winning star is doing preliminary work with Cherry for her role in Black Swan Theatre Company's production of Chekhov's The Seagull, which opens in August.

Scacchi will star as matriarch Arkadina alongside her daughter Leila George, former Packed to the Rafters actor James Stewart and screen veteran Andrew McFarlane.

The star of such films as Heat and Dust, Looking for Alibrandi and White Mischief, Scacchi spent her formative years in Perth - a time she remembers fondly.

The Italian-born Scacchi, who left Perth for Britain in 1977 and last performed here in a 1991 Festival of Perth production of Ibsen's A Doll's House, said she had a "magical time" as a teenager in Perth.

"When I was 15 it was suddenly announced we were going to move from Surrey to Australia," said Scacchi, whose stepfather uprooted the family to take a position as professor of Italian at the University of WA.

"I came kicking and screaming but the moment I set foot on the tarmac I realised this was something very significant. And I had a completely magical time here."